Today I installed Linux Mint Debian Edition with XFCE on my desktop computer and will be using it for the coming days/weeks as my main OS. I have installed the Linux Mint 11 with LXDE in VirtualBox to use for learning Ruby on Rails. I'm hoping I like Linux Mint 11 much better than Ubuntu 11.04 and Xubuntu 11.04. (I agree with those who say that Ubuntu has jumped the shark.)

LMDE is winning me over. Even with XFCE, it feels so much like the classic Linux Mint 9 Isadora with GNOME, which I consider to be THE distro for first-time Linux users. DVDs play out-of-the-box. and all of the features I liked in Linux Mint 9 with GNOME are still here. LMDE has a much more polished and refined feel than MEPIS Linux. I'm sure that if I were scraping by on only 512 MB of RAM (instead of 3.3 GB), I'd really notice the speed advantage over the Ubuntu-based version.

As the founder and lead developer of Swift Linux (http://www.swiftlinux.org), I'm seriously considering switching from the current antiX Linux base to an LMDE base. This would allow me to implement the Minty capabilities I want to provide, as i don't have the know-how to do that by myself. I admire the capability and adaptability of Clem and the Linux Mint team. It's no wonder that Linux Mint is overtaking Ubuntu.